Vitals

Background

For the 00-7th of March, Daniel Craig’s birth month (the actor turned 51 on March 2), let’s explore how someone like James Bond keeps warm for a winter mission.

Spectre provided Daniel Craig’s agent 007 with his first extended sequences set during a snowy winter, excluding the abbreviated prologue in Casino Royale and epilogue in Quantum of Solace. In Spectre, Craig’s Bond dons heavy winter gear and travels to the shores of the Lake Altaussee, beneath the Loser Plateau (pronounced ˈloːzə) in Austria, in search of the elusive arch-criminal Mr. White (Jesper Christensen).

What’d He Wear?

Bond’s cold-weather outfit for his arrival in Altaussee has received much attention since the film’s release with comprehensive looks at the outfit from James Bond Lifestyle and The Suits of James Bond. It resonated with me as a practical and classic approach to dressing for the snowy climate.

The outfit is anchored by a navy blue wool/cashmere waist-length coat from Dior Homme’s fall 2012 menswear line, styled like a winter-friendly bomber jacket with a touch of battle dress inspiration that nods to Commander Bond’s military experience.

Someone call Emanuel Leutze!

The best winter jackets never skimp on keeping its wearer warm, and the Dior Homme coat doubles down with five large dark blue plastic buttons under a wide and asymmetrical concealed fly that also zips for extra insulation against the cold. Each set-in sleeve also closes with an extended zipper that adjusts the sleeve fit, accommodating Bond’s heavy gloves and keeping the tapered sleeves snug and warm over his wrists. There are also two large set-in pockets with flaps that each close with a double set of snaps.

The jacket’s shirt-style collar, which Bond wears with the black fur trim removed, has a throat latch tab; Bond’s decision to wear a turtleneck keeps his neck less vulnerable to the cold, thus he only wears the jacket semi-zipped… also allowing him access to his shoulder-holstered Walther PPK beneath it.

The Dior Homme jacket features zippers galore, from an asymmetrical zip-up front supported by five buttons to the zip-tightened sleeve ends.

As typical with Bond-worn clothing, the Dior Homme jacket found itself the subject of intense demand and existing pieces were quickly sold to 007 style enthusiasts. Luckily, the experts at ROYALE Filmwear developed the “Altaussee Jacket” that matches the style, color, and luxurious cashmere-blended fabric of the Dior Homme piece seen in Spectre for only $249! Also like Bond’s jacket, the ROYALE Filmwear piece includes a removable faux-beaver fur collar. If you’re still on the hunt for similar jackets to keep you warm in the cold, my friend at Iconic Alternatives stays on top of budget-friendly alternatives.

I purchased my own Altaussee Jacket from ROYALE Filmwear in October 2018, and it served admirably as a fashionable and insulating outerwear during the fall-to-winter transition as well as the frigid polar vortex that enveloped my region in arctic temperatures and wind chill.

James Bond kicked off the rollneck renaissance in Spectre, wearing a total of three N.Peal turtleneck sweaters in different colors across the film. The first is this light gray sweater, the warmest of the lot in a cable-knit Mongolian cashmere colored in a shade that N.Peal calls “Fumo Grey”. The sweater has a rolled polo neck and set-in sleeves.

N.Peal proudly touts this sweater’s connection to Spectre on its website, stating that it was “designed specifically for a very special customer,” and offering it to the style-conscious consumer for $430. You can also read more about this sweater from James Bond Lifestyle here.

Sam Mendes directs Daniel Craig on the set of Spectre. The open jacket gives us a better look at the cable-knit cashmere turtleneck than we get in the finished film.

Dave Evans, an experienced movie armorer whose Bond background extends back to Die Another Day in 2002, created five custom leather shoulder rigs for Daniel Craig to wear in Spectre. The holsters were designed to be free-standing—ideal for a lighter weight, compact sidearm like the Walther PPK—without any straps that would attach it to the trouser waistband like some full-size shoulder rigs.

The brown leather shoulder holsters were treated for an aged leather look with a gunmetal-finished brass snap on a short retention strap that keeps the pistol holstered in place under the left armpit. The rig fits over Craig’s left shoulder with a thick leather strap with brass screw rivets to adjust the length, connected to a black elastic strap that fits over the right shoulder.

Craig takes more behind-the-scenes direction from Mendes, this time sans jacket, revealing both sweater and holster.

Bond’s black-and-gray tic-patterned trousers appear to be the same Neil Barrett trousers that he later wears with his dark navy John Varvatos racer jacket and charcoal N.Peal mock-neck in the London-set finale sequence, also featured on the famous Spectre teaser poster. The Neil Barrett trousers were identified by AJB007 user kadd in this thread, specifically describing them as the no longer available “BPA140 series 1213” from the autumn/winter 2014 collection.

kadd further described the trousers as a blend of 54% viscose, 26% nylon, 14% polyester, and 6% elastane, adding considerable stretch to the narrow fit. These flat front trousers have belt loops, frogmouth front pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. He appears to be wearing it with a black leather belt.

While Crockett & Jones is the more on-brand boot for Bond, the Danner pair is the more functional choice of the the two. You can read more about the differences between these boots at The Suits of James Bond.

Though the Crockett & Jones boot does get a close-up (though hardly a glamour shot) as Bond reaches down to pick up his PPK, was it worth outfitting the agent in two different sets of boots for his outdoor and indoor scenes?

Bond wisely wears a winter hat and gloves for his travels, sporting a navy ribbed-knit wool watch cap (or “beanie”) and a pair of black quilted lambskin Agnelle gloves. The cap was made by Acne Studios, and the great @BondClothing Instagram account has identified it as possibly the “Miles Beanie” in 100% wool.

007’s gloves have been identified at James Bond Lifestyle as the “James” model that the brand still offers more than three years after the film’s release though sizes are increasingly limited. The Agnelle site touts the alpaca lining and smartphone-sensitivity on the index finger and thumbs, though Bond opts for his Walther PPK rather than his Sony Xperia Z5 during the sequence. (Whether or not the gloves could accommodate Q’s handprint-technology for Bond’s PPK/S in Skyfall is a different matter!)

Glimpsed between gloves and jacket cuff as Bond makes his way through Mr. White’s cabin is the agent’s Omega Seamaster 300, the classic chronometer whose appearance in Spectre was well-publicized leading up to the movie’s November 2015 release. The SPECTRE Limited Edition model (reference 233.32.31.21.01.001) was sold to the public in a limited release of 7,007 pieces.

Bond wears his steel Omega on a black-and-gray striped NATO strap, reintroducing this classic watch strap exactly fifty years after Sean Connery famously wore his Rolex on a striped strap in Thunderball. The Spectre Seamaster 300 has a brushed steel 41mm case, a bi-directional black ceramic bezel, and a black dial. You can read more about the watch at James Bond Lifestyle.

A NATO strap often protects the wearer from a wristwatch’s metal case transferring extreme weather to the wearer’s wrist, be it extreme heat or—in this case—winter chill.

On the third finger of his right hand, under the gloves, Bond wears the iconic Spectre ring that had previously gained him admission to the organization’s meeting in Rome.

The Gun

Daniel Craig’s Bond experimented with more technologically advanced weaponry, first the Walther P99 in Casino Royale (an extension from Pierce Brosnan’s tenure) and then a Walther PPK/S with palm-reading grips in the first half of Skyfall, but it’s his faithful classic Walther PPK that 007 carries most in Spectre.

Bond offers his own Walther PPK to Mr. White as a gesture of trust. This would have been a suitable occasion for him to be carrying a model with palm-reading grips, but Q seems to have retired that capability.

Generally unchanged in appearance and operation from its introduction in the early 1930s, the Walther PPK has been James Bond’s pistol of choice since Ian Fleming took the advice of firearms Geoffrey Boothroyd and wrote it into his novels, beginning with Dr. No in 1958.

Offered primarily in .32 ACP (7.65x17mm Browning SR) and .380 ACP (9x17mm Short), Bond’s PPK is typically chambered for the former cartridge, a smaller caliber but one that allows him to carry an additional round in the magazine.

How to Get the Look

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Spectre (2015). Note that his Walther PPK is out-of-battery with the slide pulled back.

James Bond dresses comfortably and practically in designer brands for his arrival in the snowy salt-mined resort village of Altaussee, sporting cool tones of blue, gray, and black that not only echo his wintry surroundings but also communicate the coldness of his deadly mission to Austria.